NBC Weather Plus
NBC Weather Plus was a 24-hour, commercially-sponsored, weather-oriented broadcast/cable TV network jointly owned by NBC Universal & the local affiliates of the NBC network. It debuted on November 15, 2004. The network's headquarters was initially located @ the CNBC Global Headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. It was relocated to 30 Rock in Manhattan with MSNBC in the fall of 2007. The service is broadcast on DT subchannels of certain NBC affiliates in the US & is available on digital cable systems in a SDTV format. Prior to 2008, NBC Wx+ competed with The Weather Channel, which was itself acquired by a consortium led by NBC Universal in September 2008, as well as a similar DT service offered by AccuWeather, The Local AccuWeather Channel. Shortly after the acquisition of TWC on October 8 2008, NBC announced that Wx+ would be shut down by the end of 2008. Programming Local forecasts The local forecasts are the part of NBC Wx+'s programming schedule which viewers see the current conditions & local forecast for their respective area. These forecasts are usually shown after most national forecast segments. Pre-recorded weather segments featuring local weather information from meteorologists of local NBC affiliates are shown proceeding weather information. Viewers can see current weather conditions for their location & surrounding areas, weather forecasts, doppler radars of the region & the day's actual high & low temperatures. Internet viewers who see the national feed, including those areas where the network's website does not supply a certain city's Weather Plus feed, instead see a segment including daily forecasts for each region of the United States & satellite loops & Doppler radars of the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Northwest & Southwest, respectively. Unlike TWC, however, NBC Wx+ does not carry the national feed on DirecTV, Dish Network or C band satellite. Music for the local forecasts comes mostly from commercially available music, including those composed by 615 Music, who composed the music package used by NBC Wx+. For the most part, the local stations label the NBC Wx+ service as "Weather Plus" with the station branding before it, often being used in unison as the NBC station's on-air weather branding during newscasts. Many NBC affiliates use the "Weather Plus" branding for their on-air weather branding, though some do not. WNBC in New York was the test station for NBC Wx+. National programming Almost all of NBC Wx+ programming is not broadcast live, a digital video jukebox system is used to shuffle certain segments (particularly during seasonal outlook and weather news segments as well as the network's late night programming), except in the event of severe weather of particular significance ongoing in the United States. A viewer that watched NBC Weather Plus in any given day would be able to see a weather news segment that originally aired in the morning repeated long into the night, the same weather information that had aired at 11:00 p.m. airing at 4:00 a.m., and the same seasonal outlook (severe weather, tropical weather, or winter weather) segment that originally aired in the morning repeating long into the late afternoon. In the latter instance, this was an issue as updated information may not have been available during any type of severe weather (unless very significant) that was ongoing. Appearance on other networks The channel's staff also provides weather updates for fellow NBC Universal cable channels CNBC & MSNBC & MSNBC airs 'sample' hours of the channel in holiday periods during the morning hours. In addition, Wx+ is promoted during Football Night in America and is used to provide gametime temperature and conditions for the later NBC Sunday Night Football game. Increasingly during times of significant national weather events (such as a major winter storm system), Wx+ meteorologists will appear live on NBC Nightly News to provide analysis. The "L" Bar NBC Wx+ uses an "L-Bar" across the left side 3rd & bottom 3rd of the screen to continuously air local weather information, even during commercial breaks, national weather & Weather Plus University. The left side of the bar is reserved for sponsorship of Wx+ programming on the top left (sponsors of NBC Wx+'s programming is more often seen on local feeds), the middle left displays the sky condition, temperature, wind speed/direction & humidity for each city & the bottom left is reserved for station identification (on local feeds, featuring the NBC affiliate's logo augmented above the Wx+ portion of the logo) & current time is on the lower left. (During Weather Plus University, the sponsorship tag is removed.) The cycle for each city's weather information display are as follows: *The current condition display cycle for 1 city runs for 20 seconds. *The 24-hour forecast cycle runs for 10 seconds. *The 5-day forecast cycle runs for 10 seconds. However, the above does not hold true for the left side of the L-Bar on Sacramento NBC affiliate KCRA. Instead, the current conditions cycle continuously & the time is on the right-hand side in the lower-third. The bottom of the bar to the right of the time & station ID displays the forecast for the next 24 hours featuring sky condition, temperature & estimated precipitation, followed by the 5-day forecast showing sky condition & predicted high & low temperatures. Occasionally, the current conditions display shows the icons telling the sky condition with the icon displaying sun despite it being nighttime. This also occurs on TWC but usually only in the hour following sunset. Not all cities where the current conditions are displayed on the left side of the "L" bar feature that city's forecast & may instead use the conditions of the closest reporting station to that community. For example: Dallas NBC affiliate KXAS' Wx+ feed displays the current conditions for Alliance Airport but shows the forecast for Dallas-Fort Worth. DTV & cable viewers can see current weather conditions & weather forecasts for their location and surrounding areas, while internet viewers who see the national feed instead of a local feed, the bar displays current conditions & daily forecasts for 50 US cities. Personalities Former on-camera meteorologists *Gary Archibald, now at The Weather Network *Samantha Davies, Now works at KXAS *Bill Karins *Raphael Miranda *Jackie Meretsky, now at ABC *Britta Merwin, now at KCRA *Jim Nichols *Jeff Ranieri, now at KNTV *Todd Santos *Ibby Carothers *Kristen Cornett, now at KMOV in St. Louis, MO *Elise Finch, now at WCBS *Michelle Grossman, now at WCAU *Sean McLaughlin *Byron Miranda *Hillary Andrews Programming schedule The following list is the current half-hour programming cycle provided by NBC Weather Plus (as of September 2007). Note that some network segments may have a different title @ times due to a sponsor for the forecast such as State Farm Road Coverage, which replaces Coast To Coast Forecast. During severe weather, stations can choose to drop the national segments in favor of local coverage; the NBC Wx+ control room can then choose to show that feed nationally during the Coast To Coast Forecast or the Plus Five Forecast, depending on what part of the programming cycle the network is in. The local broadcast is shown live if possible. NBC Wx+ also airs the "NBC Weather Plus Weather Alert," which interrupts regular programming when a breaking weather story occurs. Breaking severe weather news & images from a particular NBC affilate may be shown. To fulfill FCC E/I requirements, NBC Wx+ shows Weather Plus University on Saturday & Sunday afternoons. In late October 2008, the national OCM segments have been phased out, as well as some of the local Wx+ systems. This leaves with only 6 minute music forecast segments & commercial breaks. Closure NBC announced on October 7, 2008 that Wx+ would be phased out by the end of the year, after the NBC affiliates expressed a desire to shut the service down. Though NBC cited its purchase of TWC as a factor in the shutdown, it has been stated that the closure would have happened even if the acquisition had not happened. According to NBC, Wx+ will begin its phase-out late November, with its closure date set for December 1, 2008. Affiliates Logos WeatherPlus2005.jpg|2004-2006 NBCWeatherPluslogo2006.jpg|2006-2008 Category:The Weather Channel Category:NBC Category:NBCUniversal